Our approach to the study of the human disease, Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis (CWP), is to determine the response of mammalian cells in culture to coals from mines where the workers show different prevalences of CWP. In this phase of our project, we are attempting to employ in vitro techniques that can be more easily extrapolated to the whole animal and man. We are attempting to bridge the in vitro gap. There are several aspects of the human disease that may be approached in in vitro systems. Connective tissue synthesis is an important part of pneumoconiosis. Collagen synthesis and other connective tissue elements in culture cells are being determined. Alteration of fine structure in human lung cells (WI-38) in response to coal are being visualized by the electron microscopy - both coal particles and coal leachates alter the fine structure of these cells. The effects of leachates on lung tissue and alveolar structures are being studied in organ and organotypic cultures. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Christian, R.T., J. Cooke, V.J. Elia and T.E. Cody. The Effects of Aqueous and Simple Extracts on Cultured Mammalian Cells. Presented at Second National Conference on Complete Water Reuse. Sponsored by AIChE and EPA, Chicago, 1975. In Press as a Paper in the Proceedings of the Second National Conference on Complete Water Reuse. Christian, R.T., T.E. Cody and V.J. Elia, The Toxicity of Simple and Complex Environmental Mixtures. (Abstract). 27th Annual Meeting of Tissue Culture Association, June 7-10, 1976, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Vitro 12 (4):338, 1976.